A paragraph a day…

My friend Sue Heatherington, author of the inspiring book Quiet Disruptors and who also publishes daily on her blog, gave me this helpful suggestion regarding writing “… perhaps restart your practice by making baby steps. Just a paragraph a day, in SFD mode, to develop a rhythm”.

Sue’s suggestion was the first layer of valuable writing inspiration this week.

The next layer came from Anne Lamott. In her book Bird by Bird, she recommends carrying an index card and pen wherever you go so you can jot down anything interesting you see or hear and as well as capture thoughts and ideas that pop into your head.

Which reminded me of what the amazing Bernadette Jiwa says in her book What great storytellers know

“When we’re present, we see stories all around us”.

Bernadette recommends leaving the earphones at home so that we can be more aware and attune to what’s going on around us.

On Tuesday this week, I went for my morning walk with all these things in mind. That was the day I enjoyed the autumn leaves that led me to draft “Oh beauty” inspired by Sue’s idea that I start with one paragraph …

The next morning, I went out with the intention to photograph those beautiful leaves to include in my post.

But the picture from the day before had changed. The leaves were trampled into the pavement; the colours were more murky than bright. And the morning light was dull not illuminating like the day before. Everything looked – less – than it did.

Later that evening when I was publishing my Oh Beauty post with a stock photo an insight came to mind….

Oftentimes the moment we are in is most definitely a one-time-only-moment. If we don’t stop and give it our full attention it might be that when we come back “later” when we “have more time” – that it’s changed or gone … (be that moments in nature or moments with others).

I thought about how spending that entire walk focused on taking a perfect photo of autumn leaves had so narrowed my attention .  I wondered what had I missed … seeing that day?

It isn’t that you don’t have stories to tell [or things to write about in your blog]. You just need to practice finding them.

“Bernadette Jiwa”